Good news: Exploratory research published by the American Psychological Association found that the brains of new mothers actually grew in areas linked to motivation and behavior. Moms who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest development in key parts of the mid-brain. Encouraging, but does this debunk the myth of mushy mommy brain? Not according to these moms…

“I was home from work one afternoon and my child was in kindergarten. I routinely picked her up from school everyday after work, but it was my day off and I was so wrapped up in watching A Baby Story on TLC that I forgot to pick her up! I was at home, all comfy in the recliner, bawling my eyes out, because of the newborn story on the television that I forgot about my own baby! That is until the school secretary called and said ‘Mrs. S, Tailor wasn't picked up today, is there a problem?’ O.M.G.! I felt so incredibly stupid, that I couldn't even muster up an excuse for my ignorance. I booked it out of the house and right to her school, only now I was crying over my baby!” —Lori, 38

“I was nine months pregnant with my daughter and came home to unload some grocery bags. I pulled into the driveway, put the car in park and started searching frantically all over for my keys. I dug through my purse and searched under the seat. I felt like I was going crazy, because I obviously didn’t lose my keys since I needed them to drive the car home. The car! That’s when I realized the keys were still in the ignition and the car was still running! (My daughter was born 3 days after.)” —Lindsay, 30

“I am taking a mommy and me gym class with my infant Mia and you have to wear socks during the class. After we were done playing and singing songs, I left the class with my socks on—and no shoes. I didn’t realize it until I walked out of the building and a friend asked where my shoes were. At least I had Mia with me!” —Miti, 30

“I recently flew to Florida with my 4-month-old son to visit my Dad, brothers and sister. I decided to check a bag, which I usually never do. When I got to the airport in Florida my sister was there to pick us up. We went to baggage claim and waited, waited, waited…nothing. I finally alerted someone who worked for the airline about my missing bag. I described my BIG BLACK suitcase with wheels and the man asked me my name. I told him my last name and he said, ‘Are you sure your bag is not here?’ He said he recognized my name and took me over to a BIG BROWN (not black) bag. Yep that was mine.” —Ashley, 23, Birmingham, Alabama

“When my son was born I was always worried that I'd fall asleep in bed while nursing him. One night, at the height of my sleep deprivation, my husband woke up and found me sitting in bed ‘inspecting’ my pillow in the dark. He said I kept turning it over and over. Then I mumbled something like, ‘I can't find his head.’ My husband said, ‘Because it's just a pillow. Not a baby. The baby is asleep in the bassinet.’” —Lisa 33, Traverse City, MI

“I was out running errands with my three-year-old son all morning and realized his lunchtime was fast approaching. I pulled into a fast food restaurant’s drive-through lane and ordered him a chicken nuggets kiddy meal. I drove up to window 1 to pay and got my change. Then I drove right past window 2 (where you pick up the actual bag of food) and got back on the highway. Halfway home my kid asked for a fry and when I went to give him one, I realized only my purse was sitting on the passenger seat. I took a U-turn and went back to retrieve the food—my face, the color of ketchup, of course. —Renee, 31, Winter Park, Fla

Single mom Christine Coppa is the author of the Target Breakout Book, Rattled! (Broadway Books, 2009) and the founding blogger of glamour.com's acclaimed Storked! blog where she spilled it about navigating an unplanned pregnancy and single motherhood minus her son's father. You can also find her witty (and often controversial blogs) on parenting.com, babble.com and Nickmom.com A professional writer/editor, she's contributed to Glamour, Marie Claire (Australia), First for Women, In Touch, Parenting, Baby Talk, and Parents among other publications and notable websites. Her work has been buzzed about in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and on ABC's 20/20. Coppa and her son represented the Yoplait Kids brand in 2011. The Sunday London Times called her a writer "at the forefront of a wave of modern moms who are reinventing the parental publishing genre." Coppa lives in North Jersey with her son Jack Domenic, 6 who is currently campaigning for a Golden Retriever puppy.